1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to an optical information recording medium and a recording apparatus, and, in particular, to an optical information recording medium and a recording apparatus for high-speed recording.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, high-speed recording has been rendered for an optical information recording medium such as a write-once compact disk (CD-R), a rewriteable compact disk (CR-RW) or the like, to which a light beam is applied so that a material of a recording layer thereof is changed, and, thereby, information is recorded thereto. Further, there are optical information recording media produced for recording at multiple speeds to which recording can be made at an arbitrary speed, and, for which it has been requested that a quality in recorded signal obtained from being recorded at a high speed is maintained, and, also, it has been requested that a quality in recorded signal obtained from being recorded at a low speed is satisfactory. Especially, according to the Part III of the Orange Book which is a specification of standards for rewriteable compact disks, high-speed recording at a speed four times through ten times, has been being standardized, in contrast to the related art in which recording is made at a speed once through four times. Further, for high-speed recording, it is difficult to apply a constant linear velocity (CLV) form to recording apparatuses in consideration of the apparatus performances. Accordingly, it is necessary to apply a constant angular velocity (CAV) form thereto. In order to apply the CAV recording form, a velocity margin approximately three times is needed for a general optical disk having a diameter of 120 mm.
However, a margin in recording speed has reached a limit for optical information recording media. In particular, for phase-change-type optical information recording media, it has been difficult to widen the margin in recording speed in consideration of property of recording material. Accordingly, optical information recording media which can be used only for high-speed recording result basically. However, actually, produced for recording at a low speed is used, and, a recording medium only for high-speed recording is inserted thereto by mistake, a writing process may be forcibly performed on the recording medium after processes such as setting of a recording power through trial writing and so forth. In such a case, due to a difference in material of optical information recording media between conventional ones for low-speed recording and new recent ones for high-speed recording, it is not possible to perform recording through the recording apparatus produced for recording at a low speed, satisfactorily. Accordingly, original data may be erroneously erased, or nonsense writing may be made.
Accordingly, it is necessary that, even from such an optical information recording medium only for high-speed recording, reproducing of recorded data can be performed through a conventional recording apparatus or reproducing apparatus produced for recording/reproducing at a low speed in order that such a recording medium can be used generally and has a compatibility, but, to such a recording medium, recording cannot be performed through such a recording apparatus produced for recording at a low speed.